The significance of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe

People of my generation who witnessed the first moon landing in 1969, remain fascinated with space travel since this was one of the biggest scientific achievements in the Twentieth Century. The image of Neil Armstrong’s famous quote “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he set foot on the Moon’s surface, which as youngsters, we saw on our black and white TV sets after remaining glued for hours following the developments continued to mesmerize us for ages.

After 51 years, the picture of China’s red flag with five stars rekindled my interest much more than the millennial generation, who take space missions to Mars and other planets for granted. The news of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the Moon, which successfully landed on the near side of Earth’s closest satellite on the evening of December 1st caught my attention. Chang’e-5 was launched on November 24 from South China’s Hainan Province. This was China’s third successful landing on the Earth’s natural satellite, following a first by the Chang’e-3 probe on December 14, 2013, and a historic first landing on the far side of the moon by the Chang’e-4 probe on January 2, 2019.

The landing site, scientists believe, contains rocks and soil that are 3.2 to 4 billion years old. It has never been visited either by a probe or human, and is believed to fill an important gap for scientists to better understand the Moon’s volcanic activities.

Chinese researchers have designed an advanced grabbing system to ensure a smooth sample collection procedure from the surface and drilling two meters deep for collecting subsurface samples. After the spacecraft worked for about 19 hours on the moon, the moon samples have been sealed inside the spacecraft to ensure that they are kept in a vacuum and free from the influence of the external environment during its return to the Earth.

Even more challenging, following the soft landing, the probe’s ascender undertook the takeoff from the moon surface, a first in China’s aerospace history. It later rendezvoused and docked with the orbital module at the lunar orbit some 380,000 kilometers away from Earth, which has never been done before. The re-entry capsule will return the lunar material to the preset landing site in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for further study and research.

The significance of the success of Chang’e-5 lunar probe is that Chang’e-5 is the world’s first moon-sample mission in 44 years and the first on the near side of the Moon. Recent attempts in the near past by India and a private group in Israel had failed.

One is reminiscent of the race to reach the moon during the Cold War era between the USA and erstwhile USSR. As a child, I recall the excitement when we learnt that Soviet Air Force pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Eight years later, USA’s Apollo 11 won the race to reach the moon but superpower rivalry prevented mutual cooperation.

China has become the second nation to plant a flag on the Moon. Despite being a late starter in its space program as compared to the USA or the Soviet Union, China has caught up in leaps and bounds, learning from unmanned missions in the 1970s by the Soviet Union, which suffered several failed attempts of lunar missions in the landing stage. This mission is an important milestone in China’s plan to build a base on the Moon aimed at establishing a lunar mission by 2029.

Sample collection on a celestial body normally combines the scoop and the drill, since the materials on the surface are usually too complicated to analyze because of all kinds of space weathering effects, and it is the soil and rocks underground that are most valuable for studying. Experts opine that the success rate so far indicates a highly reliable automatic soft landing technology, including trajectory designs, speed and altitude control techniques.

Despite the recent Sino-US rivalry in the last few years and attempts by the Occident to criticize China’s human rights records, the scientific community is excited at Beijing’s success in the lunar probe. Institutions, experts, media and internet users in Russia, the US, Canada, France and other countries have been closely following and commending this endeavor, saying it will open up a new chapter for automatic lunar sample collection and return to Earth, and it will be of revolutionary significance for increasing mankind’s understanding of the moon’s history.

The Washington DC-based media The Hill hailed the success stating: “China is the only country that has landed on the moon in decades.” It acclaimed: “China is far and away ahead in the modern race to the moon. The winner of the 21st Century moon race will have access to the moon’s resources and position as the gateway to the rest of the solar system, and will own the future.”

International observers opined “The moon surface launch and return would lay a technological foundation, and verify the viability of manned lunar landing missions, and even the building of a lunar research base.”

Though it has laid a solid foundation for future manned space tasks, scientists stressed that there is still a long way to go. Manned missions will have a much heavier payload, and a more complex system equipped with life supplies such as a suitable temperature, pressure level, and oxygen, which will pose a great challenge to the spacecraft’s soft landing.

It is heartening that China remains committed to peaceful use of outer space and has actively engaged in relevant international exchange and cooperation and shared the progress in space. It is hoped that in the spirit of seeking well-being and benefit for the whole mankind, China will continue to advance international cooperation with an open and inclusive attitude for progress in outer space exploration.